Information processing apparatus, storage medium, and data rescue method

ABSTRACT

According to one embodiment of an information processing apparatus includes: a storage medium including, a first partition that stores a first operating system and data, and a second partition that stores a second operating system and a data rescue program; a switch that allows a user to enter a command for booting the second operating system; and a boot control section that boots the second operating system when the command is entered. The data rescue program is executed when the second operating system is booted, and performs at least one of recovering and backing up the data stored in the first partition.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority fromJapanese Patent Application No. 2005-185326, filed on Jun. 24, 2005, theentire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

One embodiment of the invention relates to an information processingapparatus and a data rescue method that makes it possible to rescue dataif an ordinary operating system is corrupted.

2. Description of the Related Art

A personal computer performs various types of processing by storing anoperating system, applications, data created by the applications, andthe like in a hard disk drive and reading them from the hard disk drive.

However, if a part of the data of the operating system is broken, thepersonal computer cannot be used. In this case, the operating system isagain installed, whereby it is made possible to again use the personalcomputer.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0078680 A1discloses an technique wherein a backup unit that can be booted by acomputer is connected to a personal computer and the personal computeris booted from the backup unit, whereby all data in a hard disk drive ofthe personal computer is backed up and the backed-up data is restored inthe hard disk drive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

A general architecture that implements the various feature of theinvention will now be described with reference to the drawings. Thedrawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrateembodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of theinvention.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary block diagram showing a system configuration ofan information processing apparatus according to one embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary drawing showing a configuration of a hard diskdrive in the information processing apparatus according to theembodiment;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart describing a data rescue procedureaccording to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary drawing showing a data structure in an opticaldisk according to a modified example of the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an exemplary drawing showing a configuration of a hard diskdrive in the information processing apparatus according to a modifiedexample of the embodiment; and

FIG. 6 is an exemplary drawing showing a data structure in an opticaldisk according to a modified example of the embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments according to the invention will be describedhereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. In general,according to one embodiment of the invention, there is provided aninformation processing apparatus including: a storage medium including,a first partition that stores a first operating system and data, and asecond partition that stores a second operating system and a data rescueprogram; a switch that allows a user to enter a command for booting thesecond operating system; and a boot control section that boots thesecond operating system when the command is entered. The data rescueprogram is executed when the second operating system is booted, andperforms at least one of recovering and backing up the data stored inthe first partition.

First, the configuration of an information processing apparatusaccording to one embodiment of the invention will be described withreference to FIG. 1. The information processing apparatus is implementedas a portable notebook personal computer 10 that can be driven with abattery.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary block diagram showing the system configuration ofthe information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of theinvention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the computer 10 includes a CPU 111, a north bride112, main memory 113, a graphics controller 114, a south bridge 119, aBIOS-ROM 120, a hard disk drive (HDD) 121, an embeddedcontroller/keyboard controller IC (EC/KBC) 124, a power supplycontroller 125, and the like.

The CPU 111 is a processor provided for controlling the operation of thecomputer 10 and executes an operating system (OS) and variousapplication programs loaded into the main memory 113 from the hard diskdrive 121.

The CPU 111 also executes a BIOS (Basic Input Output System) programstored in the BIOS-ROM 120. The BIOS program in the BIOS-ROM 120 is aprogram for controlling hardware.

The north bride 112 is a bridge device for connecting a local bus of theCPU 111 and the south bridge 119. The north bride 112 also contains amemory controller for controlling access to the main memory 113. Thenorth bride 112 also has a function of executing communications with thegraphics controller 114 via an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) bus, etc.

The graphics controller 114 is a display controller for controlling anLCD 17 used as a display monitor of the computer 10. The graphicscontroller 114 has video memory (VRAM) 114A and generates a video signalfor forming a display image to be displayed on the LCD 17 of a displayunit 12 from display data written into the video memory 114A byOS/application program.

The south bridge 119 controls devices on an LPC (Low Pin Count) bus. Thesouth bridge 119 contains an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)controller for controlling the hard disk drive (HDD) 121 and an opticaldisk drive (ODD) 122. Further, the south bridge 119 also has a functionto control access to the BIOS-ROM 120.

The optical disk drive 122 is a drive unit for driving a storage mediumsuch as a DVD or a CD. The optical disk drive 122 is also a drive unitfor writing data onto recordable optical media such as a CD-R and aDVD-R and writing/erasing data to/from rewritable optical media such asa CD-RW, a DVD-RW, and a DVD-RAM.

The embedded controller/keyboard controller IC (EC/KBC) 124 is aone-chip microcomputer into which an embedded controller for powermanagement and a keyboard controller for controlling a keyboard (KB) 13,a backup button 15, and a touch pad 16 are integrated. The embeddedcontroller/keyboard controller IC (EC/KBC) 124 has a function of turningon/off the power of the computer 10 in response to user's operation of apower button 14 by operating in cooperation with power supply controller125.

A configuration of the hard disk drive 121 will be described withreference to FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2, the hard disk drive 121 has aboot block 121A called master boot record (MBR), a first partition 121B,a second partition 121C, a third partition 121D, and a fourth partition121E.

The boot block 121A has a function of recognizing an active partition byreferencing a partition table that the boot block 121A has and afunction of booting the system from the active partition.

A boot partition switching program 201 as a boot control sectioninquires of the BIOS program in the BIOS-ROM 120 which partition thesystem is to be booted from when the boot partition switching program201 is called (booted) from the BIOS program in the BIOS-ROM 120. Andupon receiving a reply, the boot partition switching program 201 makessetting to change the partition corresponding to the pressed key to anactive partition (and setting to change other partitions to inactivepartitions) in the partition table of the boot block 121A.

The first partition 121B is usually an active partition and an ordinaryoperating system 202 is booted. In addition to the ordinary operatingsystem 202, application data 204 created using an application 203 isstored in the first partition 121B.

The second partition 121C has a data rescue operating system 205 bootedwhen the user operates the power button 14 while pressing the backupbutton 15, and a data rescue program 206 executed when the data rescueoperating system 205 is booted. The user presses the power button 14 andthe backup button 15 at the same time, thereby entering a command toboot the data rescue operating system 205.

The third partition 121D is an area to back up the application data 204,etc., in the first partition 121B by the data rescue program 206.

The fourth partition 121E has a recovery operating system 207 and arecovery program 208 booted for restoring the first partition 121B tothe state at the factory default (initial state) and a recovery image209 corresponding to the state of the first partition 121B at the stateat the factory default.

One of the causes for making it impossible to boot the ordinaryoperating system 202 is the case where a part of the data of theordinary operating system 202 is broken although the hard disk drive 121does not fail. In such a case, the user operates the power button 14while pressing the backup button 15, whereby the application data 204 ofthe application 203 such as a word processor, created by the user can berescued.

Next, a rescue method of the application data 204 when a part of thefirst partition 121B is broken according to the embodiment will bedescribed with reference to an exemplary flowchart of FIG. 3.

When the user operates the power button 14, boot processing conformingto the BIOS program in the BIOS-ROM 120 is executed (block S1). Here,first, initial setting of system memory and I/O control hardware isperformed.

Upon completion of the initialization, the operation of each I/O is madepossible. The BIOS program in the BIOS-ROM 120 inquires of the EC/KBC124 whether or not the backup button 15 is pressed, and determineswhether or not the backup button 15 is pressed (block S2).

If the backup button 15 is not pressed (NO at block S2), the ordinaryoperating system 202 is booted.

If the backup button 15 is pressed (YES at block S2), the BIOS programin the BIOS-ROM 120 boots the boot partition switching program 201(block S3). The boot partition switching program 201 inquires of theBIOS program in the BIOS-ROM 120 which partition is to be booted.

Upon receiving a reply meaning that the active partition is the secondpartition 121C from the BIOS-ROM 120, the boot partition switchingprogram 201 makes setting to change the second partition 121C to theactive partition and setting to change the first partition 121B to aninactive partition in the partition table of the boot block 121A (blockS4).

The BIOS program in the BIOS-ROM 120 reads the boot block (MBR) 121Ainto the memory and passes the processing to the boot block 121A. Torecognize which partition the active partition is, the boot block 121Asearches a partition table. Then, the boot block 121A recognizes thatthe active partition is the second partition 121C, and passes theprocessing to a boot sector in the second partition 121C. Accordingly,the active partition (second partition 121C) is booted from the bootsector (block S5).

After the second partition 121C is booted, automatically the data rescueprogram 206 is booted (block S6). The data rescue program 206 attemptsto recover the data stored in the first partition 121B where a part ofdata seems to be corrupted (block S7). The data rescue program 206 backsup predetermined data such as the application data 204 and setup data ofthe application 203 other than the ordinary operating system 202 to thethird partition 121D automatically or in accordance with user selection(block S8). The data that cannot be recovered in the preceding block isnot backed up.

After the data rescue program 206 backs up the data, the data rescueprogram 206 saves setting for booting the system from the fourthpartition 121E (changing the fourth partition 121E to the activepartition) in the partition table of the boot block 121A (block S9). Thedata rescue program 206 makes setting so as to boot the system in a modeto restore the data backed up to the third partition 121D into the firstpartition 121B when the data rescue program 206 is next booted.

After making the setting, the data rescue program 206 again boots thesystem. Since setting is made so that the system is booted from thefourth partition 121E before the re-booting, the system is booted fromthe fourth partition 121E, whereby the recovery operating system 207 isbooted. When the recovery operating system 207 is booted, the recoveryprogram 208 is automatically booted (block S10). The recovery program208 initializes the first partition 121B and then writes the recoveryimage 209 into the first partition 121B to restore the first partition121B to the state at the factory default (block S11). After completionof writing the recovery image 209, the recovery program 208 savessetting for booting the system from the second partition 121C (changingthe second partition 121C to the active partition) in the partitiontable of the boot block 121A (block S12).

After saving the setting, the recovery program 208 again boots thesystem. Since setting is made so that the system is booted from thesecond partition 121C before the re-booting, the system is booted fromthe second partition 121C even if the user performs no operation,whereby the data rescue operating system 205 is booted. When the datarescue operating system 205 is booted, the data rescue program 206 isautomatically booted (block S13). The setting is made so as to boot thesystem in the mode to restore the data backed up to the third partition121D at block S8 into the first partition 121B. The data rescue program206 restores the data backed up to the third partition 121D into thefirst partition 121B (block S14).

After completion of the restoration processing, the data rescue program206 initializes the boot setting of the data rescue program 206. Thedata rescue program 206 saves setting for booting the system from thefirst partition 121B (changing the first partition 121B to the activepartition) in the partition table of the boot block 121A.

After saving the setting, the data rescue program 206 again boots thesystem. Since setting is made so that the system is booted from thefirst partition 121B before the re-booting, the system is booted fromthe first partition 121B even if the user performs no operation. Aninitialization program is executed at the first booting time after therecovery.

According to the embodiment, if a part of the data of the ordinaryoperating system 202 in the first partition 121B is broken, the datarescue operating system 205 and the data rescue program 206 in thesecond partition 121C are booted, whereby the data in the firstpartition 121B is recovered and then the data in the first partition121B is backed up to the third partition 121D, whereby the data retainedin the first partition 121B can be rescued.

The recovery operating system 207 and the recovery program 208 in thefourth partition 121E are booted, whereby the first partition 121B canbe restored to the state at the factory default.

After the first partition 121B is restored, the data backed up to thethird partition 121D by the data rescue program 206 is restored into thefirst partition 121B, whereby the data is stored at a position similarto that at the backup time and thus the user can immediately recognizethe restored location of the data.

MODIFIED EXAMPLE 1

The data rescue operating system 205 and the data rescue program 206 maybe stored in a rewritable optical disk 220, as shown in FIG. 4. If thesystem cannot be booted from the first partition 121B, the optical disk220 is stored in the optical disk drive 122 and the system is bootedfrom the optical disk drive 122, whereby the data rescue operatingsystem 205 is booted and then the data rescue program 206 isautomatically booted. The data rescue program 206 copies the data storedin the hard disk drive 121 into a free area (storing area) 221 of theoptical disk 220.

After the data is copied, the state is recovered to the state at thefactory default in the hard disk drive 121 and then again the system isbooted from the optical disk 220 and the data rescue operating system205 and the data rescue program 206 are booted. The data copied by thedata rescue program 206 into the free area 221 in the optical disk 220is restored into the first partition 121B of the hard disk drive 121.The data restored into the hard disk drive 121 from the optical disk 220may be all data or may be some data.

According to the above configuration, the data rescue operating system205 and the data rescue program 206 for rescuing data need not beretained in the hard disk drive 121, so that the free area of the harddisk drive 121 increases, leading to an increase in the area availablefor the user.

For example, storage section using flash memory may be adopted in placeof a rewritable medium such as an optical disk.

MODIFIED EXAMPLE 2-1

In the embodiment described above, the partition in which the datarescue operating system 205 and the data rescue program 206 to back upthe first partition 121B are stored and the partition in which therecovery operating system 207 and the recovery program 208 for restoringthe first partition 121B to the state at the factory default are storedare separate. However, a data rescue/recovery operating system 230, thedata rescue program 206, the recovery program 208, the recovery image209, and a function selection program 231 can also be stored in thefourth partition 121E of one partition, as shown in FIG. 5.

If the user operates the power button 14 while pressing the backupbutton 15, the boot partition switching program 201 switches the activepartition to the fourth partition 121E. After the data rescue/recoveryoperating system 230 is booted, the function selection program 231 isautomatically booted.

The function selection program 231 displays a menus screen on the LCD17, requesting the user to select any function to execute from among “1.Back up,” “2. Restore data,” and “3. Recover first partition.” If theuser selects “1. Back up,” the data rescue program 206 is booted and thedata backup function is executed. The data in the first partition 121Bis backed up to the third partition 121D as in the embodiment describedabove.

If the user selects “2. Restore data,” the data rescue program 206 isbooted and the function to restore the data backed up to the thirdpartition 121D into the first partition 121B is executed. The functionselection program 231 may have a function for suppressing selection of“2. Restore data” if the second partition 121C is searched and backed updata does not exist in the second partition 121C.

If the user selects “3. Recover first partition,” the function selectionprogram 231 boots the recovery program 208. The recovery program 208formats the first partition 121B and then restores the first partition121B to the state at the factory default using the recovery image 209.

In the modified example, the two operating systems of the ordinaryoperating system 202 and the data rescue/recovery operating system 230may be provided in the hard disk drive 121 as the operating systems andtherefore the operating systems occupying the hard disk drive 121 can bedecreased in size. That is, the data rescue/recovery operating system230 is smaller in size than the ordinary operating system 202.

MODIFIED EXAMPLE 2-2

As a modified example of modified example 2-1, the data rescue/recoveryoperating system 230, the data rescue program 206, the recovery program208, the recovery image 209, and the function selection program 231 maybe stored in a rewritable optical disk 240 as in modified example 1. Thedata in the hard disk drive 121 may be backed up to a free area 241 ofthe optical disk 240.

According to modified example 2-2, the data rescue/recovery operatingsystem 230, the data rescue program 206 for rescuing data, and therecovery image 209 and the recovery program 208 for restoring the firstpartition 121B to the state at the factory default need not be retainedin the hard disk drive 121, so that the free area of the hard disk drive121 increases, leading to an increase in the area available for theuser.

For example, storage section using flash memory may be adopted in placeof a rewritable medium such as an optical disk.

The invention is not limited to the foregoing embodiments but variouschanges and modifications of its components may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. Also, the componentsdisclosed in the embodiments may be assembled in any combination forembodying the present invention. For example, some of the components maybe omitted from all the components disclosed in the embodiments.Further, components in different embodiments may be appropriatelycombined.

1. An information processing apparatus comprising: a storage mediumincluding, a first partition that stores a first operating system anddata, and a second partition that stores a second operating system and adata rescue program; a switch that allows a user to enter a command forbooting the second operating system; and a boot control section thatboots the second operating system when the command is entered, whereinthe data rescue program is executed when the second operating system isbooted, and performs at least one of recovering and backing up the datastored in the first partition.
 2. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the first partition further stores dataexcept the data.
 3. The information processing apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the storage medium further includes a third partitionthat is used by the data rescue program to back up the data stored inthe first partition.
 4. The information processing apparatus accordingto claim 1, wherein the storage medium further includes a fourthpartition that stores a third operating system, a recovery image forrecovering the first partition into an initial state, and a recoveryprogram for recovering the first partition into the initial state usingthe recovery image.
 5. The information processing apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the second partition further stores a recovery imagefor recovering the first partition into an initial state and a recoveryprogram for recovering the first partition into the initial state usingthe recovery image.
 6. The information processing apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the storage medium further includes a boot block thatboots one of the first and second operating systems, and wherein theboot control section instructs the boot block to boot the secondoperating system.
 7. The information processing apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the second operating system is smaller in size than thefirst operating system.
 8. A rewritable storage medium comprising: afirst area storing a second operating system to be booted in aninformation processing apparatus including a storage medium; a secondarea storing a data rescue program that is executable in the informationprocessing apparatus, and that performs at least one of recovering andbacking up data stored in the storage medium; and a third area that isused for backing up the data stored in the storage medium.
 9. Therewritable storage medium according to claim 8, wherein the storagemedium further stores data except the data.
 10. The rewritable storagemedium according to claim 8 further comprising: a fourth area storing arecovery image for recovering the storage medium into an initial state;and a fifth area storing a recovery program for recovering the storagemedium into the initial state using the recovery image.
 11. A datarescue method of an information processing apparatus comprising astorage medium, the storage medium including, a first partition thatstores a first operating system and data, and a second partition thatstores a second operating system and a data rescue program executed whenthe second operating system is booted, the data rescue methodcomprising: booting the second operating system; executing the datarescue program; wherein the data rescue method further comprises atleast one of, recovering the data stored in the first partition by thedata rescue program stored in the second partition; and backing up thedata stored in the first partition to any other partition in the storagemedium than the first partition.
 12. The data rescue method according toclaim 11, wherein the first partition further stores data except thedata.
 13. The data rescue method according to claim 11, wherein the stepof baking up backs up the data to a third partition included in thestorage medium.
 14. The data rescue method according to claim 11,further comprising recovering the first partition into an initial stateafter the step of backing up the data.
 15. The data rescue methodaccording to claim 11, further comprising recovering the first partitioninto an initial state after the step of backing up the data, using arecovery image stored in the second partition.
 16. The data rescuemethod according to claim 11, further comprising recovering the firstpartition into an initial state after the step of backing up the data,using a recovery image stored in a fourth partition included in thestorage medium.